Although these men are seen as ’lone gunman’ a pattern is emerging as this assault comes four months after the deadly attack on the Army’s Fort Hood in Texas, and last month’s storming of an Internal Revenue Service building in Austin, Texas by a disaffected man with a plane.

As much as these are said to be isolated incidents, with unemployment, poverty, and rising discontentment of the population with the actions of the old and new government, these yet may be the beginnings of things to come.

What is interesting is how the U.S. government decides on which attacks qualify as terrorism, such as the events of September 11, 2001, and the Oklahoma City Bombing, and which it decides are NOT terrorism; the recent events by supposed right-wing politically-minded and alleged islamic-sympathizing soldiers.

Wheeler was the assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force in the George W. Bush Administration. It was the Secretary of the Air Force who discovered that Richard Cheney had set up an alternative chain of command to the nuclear weapons wing of the AF. In the process, six minutemen missiles armed with nuclear warheads were secretly transported from Minot AFB to Barksdale AFB. The later is the chief staging base for the Middle East war. The alarm system for the weapons was deactivated for the transport, something that not even the base commander could authorize. The orders had to have come from above. Many point to Cheney. Before the warheads could be flown via B-52 to the Iraq/Iran theater, the Secretary of the Air Force ordered the stand-down of all B-52 flights. When he discovered the alternative chain of command to Cheney, he fired all military personnel who were involved. Cheney was said to have been livid. The Secretary ordered an investigation of what the AF press release called an oversight, and 70 enlisted men and 5 officers were removed from the Minot nuclear system.

At the same time, people involved began to die mysteriously. Wheeler is only the latest casualty.

View: Larger | Hide . Ashley Turton, a Washington lobbyist and former chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-3) was killed on Monday, Jan. 10, 2011 in a Washington, DC car fire. She was married to Daniel Turton, the White House deputy director of legislative affairs for the U.S. House since 2009. Photo: Contributed Photo\ (WTOP Photo/Mark Segraves) / Connecticut Post Contributed Ashley Turton, a Washington lobbyist and former chief of staff to... Ashley Turton, a Washington lobbyist and former chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-3) was killed on Monday, Jan. 10, 2011 in a Washington, DC car fire. She was married to Daniel Turton, the White House deputy director of legislative affairs for the U.S. House since 2009. Photo: Contributed Photo\ (WTOP Photo/Mark Segraves) / CT Ashley Turton, a Washington lobbyist and former chief of staff to... Ashley Turton, a Washington lobbyist and former chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-3) was killed on Monday, Jan. 10, 2011 in a Washington, DC car fire. She was married to Daniel Turton, the White House deputy director of legislative affairs for the U.S. House since 2009. Photo: Contributed Photo\ (WTOP Photo/Mark Segraves) / CT Ashley Turton, a Washington lobbyist and former chief of staff to... Ashley Turton, a Washington lobbyist and former chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-3) was killed on Monday, Jan. 10, 2011 in a Washington, DC car fire. She was married to Daniel Turton, the White House deputy director of legislative affairs for the U.S. House since 2009. Photo: Contributed Photo\ (WTOP Photo/Mark Segraves) / CT Ashley Turton, a Washington lobbyist and former chief of staff to... Ashley Turton, a Washington lobbyist and former chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-3) was killed on Monday, Jan. 10, 2011 in a Washington, DC car fire. She was married to Daniel Turton, the White House deputy director of legislative affairs for the U.S. House since 2009. Photo: Contributed Photo/Facebook / Connecticut Post | Buy This Photo Ashley Turton, a Washington lobbyist and former chief of staff to.... . . .

After the snowstorm, another threat looms -- ice dammingSacred Heart students reach out to help others during Curtis WeekHimes: Vote on health care law repeal is 'political theater'Page 1 of 1WASHINGTON -- The former chief of staff for a Connecticut congresswoman was found dead Monday morning inside her car after it reportedly burst into flames at her Capitol Hill townhouse.

Ashley Turton, 37, a lobbyist for a major energy company, was the former top aide to U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the wife of a White House staff member and the mother of three children under the age of 5.

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The District of Columbia police major crime investigations unit and the D.C. fire department are investigating what police described as a single vehicle crash into the interior of the home's garage about 4:45 a.m. that ignited both the BMW sport utility vehicle and the home's garage. Photographs of the scene showed the SUV only partly backed out of the home's garage and at an odd angle.

"It had heavy smoke and fire conditions in a garage -- an attached garage of a 2½ story rowhouse," D.C. Fire spokesman Pete Piringer told Politico. "The homeowner initially indicated that everyone in the house was accounted for. Firefighters were able to quickly knock down the bulk of the fire during the firefighting operation, but they did find an adult occupant of the vehicle (in the garage) deceased."

A police captain told the Washington Post there was no evidence of obvious wrongdoing in Turton's death.

"I loved her," DeLauro said. "I am heartbroken." She added: "Ashley was like family to me. I went to her wedding and know her husband. I attended the baptism of her three children."

Turton, a Raleigh, N.C., native, was the mother of twin boys and a younger daughter, DeLauro said. She had served as DeLauro's press secretary and then chief of staff from 2000 to 2007. DeLauro, a Democrat, represents Connecticut's 3rd Congressional District, which includes Stratford, Milford, Ansonia, Derby, Shelton and Seymour.

DeLauro said she most recently heard from Turton last Wednesday, when Turton was attending an industry conference. Turton e-mailed the congresswoman that she was about to step out because she didn't want to listen to a presentation by Karl Rove, the prominent Republican consultant, DeLauro said.

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"I don't care if I miss that," Turton wrote.

Turton, a 1997 graduate of North Carolina State University, had been working for the North Carolina-based company Progress Energy as a lobbyist since 2007. She also previously worked with U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt, alongside her husband, Daniel Turton, who was appointed to his current position as deputy director of legislative affairs for the U.S. House in January 2009 after many years spent working as a congressional staffer.

D.C. records show that the house, in the 800 block of A Street Southeast, is owned by Daniel Turton, who reportedly purchased the house in 2003 for $826,000.

Mike Hughes, a spokesman for Progress Energy, said Turton's co-workers were devastated by Turton's death, according to a statement.

Progress CEO Bill Johnson also issued a statement Monday afternoon on Turton's death: "Ashley was a valued employee whose insight and hard work had been critical on so many of our legislative and regulatory issues. She was also a dear friend to many of us and this news is very hard to take. I know we all will keep her husband, children and parents in our thoughts and prayers. Today is an eventful day for us as employees of Progress Energy. Ashley's tragic death reminds us all to keep perspective in all things."

Representatives for Raleigh, N.C.-based Progress Energy and another energy giant, Charlotte-based Duke Energy, announced on Monday that Duke will buy Progress for more than $13 billion in stock, pending approval from regulators. The deal would create a utility company with the most customers served in the United States, about 7.1 million across six states.